During his first days on the job, EPA Administrator Zeldin rubber stamps Trump’s crippling funding freeze, threatens jobs, jeopardizes infrastructure projects, and violates federal law
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) joined all Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee in demanding answers from newly-confirmed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin about the agency’s freezing of Congressionally appropriated funds, including those that have already been obligated.
According to public reporting, the EPA sent letters to grant recipients explaining it was pausing “all funding actions related to” the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Not only are these funding cuts already having devastating effects on communities, with reports of jobs in jeopardy and essential infrastructure projects on the chopping block, but failing to allow grant recipients to access funds that have already been obligated violates federal law.
“We write concerning troubling reports that the Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to claw back funds that have already been obligated to grant recipients. We believe that this is contrary to federal law,” wrote Senators Alsobrooks, Whitehouse, Sanders, Merkley, Markey, Kelly, Padilla, Schiff, and Blunt Rochester. “Many of us have also been contacted by grantees in our states reporting that they no longer have access to the grant money that has been obligated to them.”
The Senators further pressed Administrator Zeldin on his failure to abide by the commitments he made to Members of the Committee during his confirmation hearing. When asked if he believed the president or executive branch could ignore congressional appropriation decisions and instructions, then-nominee Zeldin responded, “If confirmed, I pledge to respect all of Congress’s duly enacted statutes.” When asked if he pledged to respect congressional appropriation decisions, he reaffirmed his commitment to executing on EPA’s mission and recognized Congress’s power of the purse.
But it appears that in his first days as EPA Administrator, Zeldin is already allowing President Trump to pull the strings at EPA by failing swiftly to address these funding freezes that undermine EPA’s core mission and run contrary to federal law.
The Senators are demanding that Administrator Zeldin provide a valid legal justification for the funding freezes and explain when he plans to restore the availability of the funds to grant recipients.
The text of the full letter (with footnotes) is available here.